4 marketing requirements to make 2015 even more profitable

By Kristin Flor

As a global digital marketing agency representing top brands around the world, we, like every other business, live in a constant state of “betterment.” Our clients are never satisfied with the status quo.

That is why I spent the last week of the old year reflecting on the many things we learned in 2014. The objective: How to make 2015 even more profitable for our clients. Although a few ideas might qualify as real breakthroughs, most qualify as refinements to help move what we are already doing from good to better. Mobile is a big part of it all.

As marketers, we all know that human nature changes slowly – if at all. And marketing is all about people and what makes them tick.

Here are the four things to keep in mind to make your marketing click with your prospects in 2015, followed by a sure-fire process for discovering even more strategies on your own.

1. Never forget: You are what you do
It is unfortunate that advertising became so enamored with demographics back in the Mad Men era. If your mobile efforts are still relying on simple demographics to get results, it is time to keep in mind what direct marketers have always known – age and gender are not nearly as predictive as actual behavior.

Here is our refinement that can be adapted for any mobile campaign. For one client, we discovered that those who had responded – but had not bought – in the past were our best prospects.

Handraising behavior is a win – not a waste – because we confirm that the name we targeted is a real person, we confirm they are the right person and we know they are interested. We may just need to sweeten the offer – or approach them at a better time.

We track these handraisers relentlessly. We know who they are down to the individual level and where they came from. And they always are the top-performing group.

At the other end of the spectrum, we also track our low-performing leads. Unlike handraisers, we rest these lists regularly, compared to the rotation for average-performing lists. That can give the results a 40 percent to 50 percent boost when we do contact them.

2. Do this, get that
Besides targeting, nothing is more important than the offer. Without an offer, there is no good reason to respond now. When response is delayed, it is usually forgotten. This is true regardless of the marketing channel used.

How to maximize this truth? When a client has only a limited selection of offers, fatigue is a real issue. We always rotate a mix of two to three offers between touches. We also help our clients come up with new, better, more exciting offers. This is at or near the top of our to-do list.

3. Hit them where they live
We have been saying you should be seeking out your target audience on mobile devices for what feels like a decade now. Has everyone finally gotten on board with that? Does not look that way.

Every statistic in the market confirms this fact: It is a mobile-first world. And that means even your emails – particularly your emails – should be responsively designed. If you do just one thing in 2015, be mobile responsive in all your marketing.

4. Customer journeys are not linear
Because of this, it is essential that the marketing be precise. It takes precise data, modeling, targeting, segmentation, media, production, development and optimization to develop action-oriented CRM that delivers consistent, compelling customer experiences.

If you want to engage customers on their journey, you need to do the hard work behind the scenes to know where they are going and what they want and need at each step.

What others ways can you make 2015 more profitable for your brand? Marketing may not be rocket science, but moving your marketing from good to great requires a scientific method.

Incorporate the scientific method into all of your marketing efforts to find ways to continually improve. That means: 1) observe everything 2) never stop asking why 3) Build your hypothesis 4) Test 5) Draw your conclusion; and 6) Refine your approach based on results.

Kristin Flor is managing director for business development, marketing and PR for HackerAgency, a global direct and digital agency based in Seattle. Reach her at kristin.flor@hal2l.com.